Best Fire Pits and Chimineas UK

There is a stretch of the year, roughly late September to the end of October, when the garden is still worth sitting in but only if something is burning. A fire pit or chiminea buys you six or eight extra weeks outdoors, which is a decent return on somewhere between £40 and £400.

The trouble is that the market is enormous and most of it is bad. Thin pressed steel bowls that warp in a season sit on the same shelf as 4mm corten pieces that will outlive the shed, and the photographs look almost identical. Here is what actually matters.

Quick verdict

• Best overall: the MOODZ Corten Steel Fire Bowl, Ø60cm (around £75-90)
• Best budget buy: the Gr8 Garden Steel Fire Bowl with mesh lid (around £30-60)
• Best for small gardens: the Charles Bentley Leaf Design Clay Chiminea (around £40-90)
• Best for durability: the Gardebruk Cast Iron Chiminea (around £110-180)
• Best for smoke: the HongTaok Double-Wall Smokeless Fire Pit (around £110-180)
• Best for cooking: the HIRIX Hortus 3-in-1 Fire Pit with grill (around £45-60)

Fire pit or chiminea? The honest answer

They do different jobs, and the choice comes down to garden size more than taste.

Fire pits

An open bowl throws heat in all directions, so people can sit around it in a circle. That is the whole appeal. The cost is that smoke goes wherever the wind takes it, which in a terraced garden means into somebody’s washing. Fire pits want space around them, ideally three metres of clearance, and they need a hard, non-combustible base.

Chimineas

The enclosed belly and chimney do two useful things: they draw the fire properly, so it burns hotter and cleaner, and they send smoke upwards rather than sideways. Heat comes out of the front opening only, so it is directional. That makes a chiminea the sensible choice for a small or enclosed garden, or anywhere you have close neighbours.

If your garden is smaller than about six metres across, or overlooked, buy a chiminea. If you have room and want people sitting round it, buy a fire pit.

The best fire pits and chimineas in the UK

1. MOODZ Corten Steel Fire Bowl – best overall

Around £75-90 for a 60cm bowl in corten (weathering) steel, such as the MOODZ Outdoor Living Heat fire bowl. Corten is designed to rust: the surface oxidises to a stable orange-brown patina that then seals itself and stops corroding further. It is what those handsome rust-coloured garden bowls are made of. Larger 80-100cm corten bowls exist too, but typically start well above £250.

Pros: the thickness means it will not warp, buckle or burn through, which is what kills cheap bowls; heat radiates evenly through 360 degrees; it looks better after two winters than it did new; a fifteen-to-twenty-year purchase.

Cons: expensive, and heavy enough that you will site it once and leave it; the patina stains paving and decking permanently in the first year, so put it on gravel or a slab you do not mind marking; it is still an open fire, so smoke is your neighbours’ problem too.

Best for: anyone who has decided this is a permanent garden feature rather than an experiment.

2. Gr8 Garden Steel Fire Bowl with Mesh Lid – best budget buy

Around £30-60 from garden centres, Amazon UK and B&Q, such as the Gr8 Garden 24-inch steel fire bowl. A pressed steel bowl, usually with a cut-out pattern, a spark mesh and a simple stand.

Pros: cheap enough to find out whether you will actually use one; the mesh lid is a real safety feature and stops sparks reaching a fence; light enough to move and to put away for winter.

Cons: the steel is thin, usually under 2mm, so it warps and eventually burns through – two or three seasons is realistic; the paint blisters off after the first proper fire; the cut-outs weaken the bowl exactly where it gets hottest. Anything under £50 rarely carries a warranty worth reading.

Best for: a first fire pit, or occasional use. Do not expect it to last.

3. Charles Bentley Leaf Design Clay Chiminea – best for small gardens

Around £40-90. Gardeco and La Hacienda are the two names you will see most; a plain unglazed Gardeco is roughly £40, a La Hacienda Murcia around £60. Fired clay body, cast or clay chimney, usually on a metal stand.

Pros: clay holds heat and radiates it gently long after the flames drop; the enclosed design burns cleanly and puts smoke up rather than out; genuinely attractive; cheap.

Cons: clay cracks – from frozen rainwater, from too big a fire, or from being doused while hot. It needs a winter cover and sand in the base. Treat it as a five-year consumable, not a fixture.

Best for: small, enclosed or overlooked gardens where an open fire would annoy someone.

4. Gardebruk Cast Iron Chiminea – best for durability

Around £110-180. Gardebruk’s cast iron chiminea, at 112cm tall, is a widely available online option; La Hacienda’s cast iron range is the other major UK stockist, sold at B&Q, Robert Dyas and garden specialists.

Pros: will not crack, will not warp, does not care about frost; heavier construction means it holds heat properly and throws it forward; usually comes with a grill shelf; a genuine long-term buy if you keep it covered.

Cons: rusts if left uncovered through a British winter, and surface rust flakes faster than people expect; very heavy, so it needs a solid level base and two people to shift; the chimney stays hot enough to burn a hand well after the fire looks finished.

Best for: anyone who wants a chiminea to be a ten-year purchase and will actually put the cover on.

5. HongTaok Double-Wall Smokeless Fire Pit – best for smoke

Around £110-180 for a genuine double-wall design, such as the HongTaok 50cm smokeless fire pit. Solo Stove is the best-known premium brand in the UK; the Bonfire 2.0 bundle sits around £400-480 depending on offers, but a well-made stainless double-wall pit like this delivers most of the same smoke reduction for a lot less.

Pros: the double wall preheats air and feeds it back into the top of the fire, which burns off most of the smoke – it is a real effect, not marketing; light, portable, and the stainless body will not rot; ash volume is noticeably lower.

Cons: smokeless only when running hot on dry wood – a damp log smokes like any other; steep against a plain bowl; the stainless discolours to straw-brown; the burn is fast, so it eats wood. Our kindling splitter picks help get it burning hot quickly.

Best for: small patios, close neighbours, and anyone who has given up on smoke management.

6. HIRIX Hortus 3-in-1 Fire Pit – best for cooking

Around £45-60. A square steel fire pit with a BBQ grill grid and mesh lid, such as the HIRIX Hortus 3-in-1. True swing-arm fire pits are rare on Amazon UK, so a fixed grill grid set over the bowl is the closest realistic option.

Pros: one item does the fire and the cooking, which matters if storage is tight; the mesh lid doubles as a spark guard when you are not cooking; usually a heavier gauge of steel than a plain budget bowl.

Cons: cooking over wood needs embers, not flames, so you wait 30-40 minutes; the grate is a nuisance to clean and most people stop bothering; a dedicated BBQ does food better and a plain fire pit does fire better.

Best for: people who want to cook occasionally, not people who want a barbecue.

Comparison at a glance

Type	Around	Best garden size	Smoke	Realistic life
MOODZ Corten Steel Fire Bowl	£75-90	Small to medium	Open, blows about	10-15 years
Gr8 Garden Steel Fire Bowl	£30-60	Any	Open, blows about	2-3 years
Charles Bentley Clay Chiminea	£40-90	Small	Directed upwards	3-5 years
Gardebruk Cast Iron Chiminea	£110-180	Small to medium	Directed upwards	10+ years covered
HongTaok Smokeless Fire Pit	£110-180	Small to medium	Minimal when hot	8-12 years
HIRIX Hortus 3-in-1 Fire Pit	£45-60	Medium	Open, blows about	4-6 years

What to burn – and the Ready to Burn rule

Almost every complaint about a fire pit is really a complaint about wet wood. Above 20 percent moisture, wood will not burn cleanly whatever you burn it in. A wood moisture meter takes the guesswork out, and a proper log store keeps it dry.

Since the Air Quality regulations came into force, wood sold in volumes under two cubic metres in England must be certified Ready to Burn, meaning it is at or below 20 percent moisture. Buy that, or season your own for two years under cover with air moving through it. A wood moisture meter costs £15 and settles the argument in seconds – we cover those separately.

Do not burn: treated or painted timber, pallets with blue or coloured stamps, MDF or chipboard, garden waste, leaves, or anything plastic. Softwood is fine for getting going but spits, so use a spark guard. Kiln-dried hardwood – ash, beech, oak, birch – gives the longest, cleanest burn.

The rules you should know

No law in England or Wales bans garden fire pits outright, but three things can catch you out.

1. Smoke control areas. Many towns and cities are designated under the Clean Air Act 1993. Buildings are the main target, but persistent visible smoke from garden burning can still be enforced against. Your council website will say whether you are in one.
2. Statutory nuisance. Anywhere in the UK, smoke that repeatedly affects a neighbour can trigger an abatement notice under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and ignoring one can mean a fine. Occasional evening use with dry wood is not the target; burning garden waste every weekend is.
3. Dark smoke. Emitting dark smoke – typically from burning rubbish, plastic or treated wood – is a separate offence carrying fines up to £5,000.

In practice: dry wood, moderate fires, not every night, and a quick word with the neighbours before the first one. That covers it.

Safety and siting

• Put it on a hard, level, non-combustible base. Not decking, not a lawn you care about, not directly on artificial grass, which melts.
• Keep three metres clear above and around. Overhanging branches, fence panels and washing lines are the usual casualties.
• Use a spark guard if you are burning softwood or if there is any wind.
• Keep a bucket of water or sand nearby – but never throw water into a hot clay chiminea, which will crack it instantly.
• Let ash cool for 48 hours before disposal. Ash that looks dead can still be hot enough to melt a wheelie bin.
• Buy a cover, £15-25. Every material here lasts dramatically longer covered, and a fire pit left full of rainwater over winter is the commonest way people destroy one.
• Line a new clay chiminea with 5-8cm of sand and build the first few fires small, to cure the clay gently.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use a fire pit on decking?

Not directly. Even with a stand, radiated heat scorches boards and falling embers do the rest. If decking is your only option, use a heat shield or paving slabs underneath and accept some risk of marking.

Do smokeless fire pits really work?

Broadly yes, once they are up to temperature and burning dry wood. Expect a noticeable reduction rather than complete elimination, and none of the effect at all during lighting or on damp logs.

Will a fire pit heat a garden in winter?

It heats the people sitting round it, not the space. Reckon on a comfortable circle about two metres across. Beyond that you will feel the fire on your face and the cold on your back.

Our pick

For most gardens with a bit of space, a corten fire bowl such as the MOODZ Heat at around £80 is the buy that you stop thinking about. It costs more than a basic steel bowl, and then it lasts for years and gets better looking.

For a small or overlooked garden, a cast iron chiminea at around £150 does a better job of not annoying anyone, holds heat for longer than clay, and will survive being forgotten about occasionally.

And if you are not sure you will use one at all, a £55 steel bowl with a mesh lid answers the question for a season. Just do not expect a third.

Next in this series: our guide to kindling splitters, and our reviews of log stores and wood moisture meters.

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